bsimonds

When I bought my used 2010 LS460L at 60,000 miles it had near new Pirelli tires. By 75,000 miles they were worn on the inside corner. There was even wear with still good tread depth across 9/10 of the tread but the inside edge of the belts were exposed. I installed Michelin MXM4 Primacy's and had the alignment checked by a reputable alignment shop and they found nothing out of spec. Now, 15,000 miles later the same uneven wear pattern is showing up on these tires. My Lexus dealer service adviser says "All Lexus cars do that. It's the way the suspension is designed." Has anyone else had this problem? Has anyone found a solution?

Doublebase

I'm having similar problems...alignment angles are perfect, but a slight pull and tire wear. My control arms are shot and I'll be replacing them in the next couple weeks, so perhaps yours are too. You are in the vicinity - in terms of mileage - of the control arm failure.

Other than that, try rotating them in an X like fashion...and rotate them frequently. The car is big. The car is heavy, but it shouldn't go through tires that fast. I'm hoping mine is the control arms, otherwise I'll be replacing tires every year on this thing.

bsimonds

I would think that if I had control arm problems the alignment tech or dealer mechanic would have noticed it and told me. It tracks straight with no pulling.

sdwtchlvr

iTrader: (1)

Something is not right. If a reputable alignment shop is saying everything is fine and your Lexus advisor is saying all Lexus cars do that, it's time to look for another shop. That can't be acceptable. Something is up for sure.

Tec80

Your alignment is off for sure. Tires should wear pretty evenly, especially if rotated front to rear every 5-10k. I have 10k on my 2011 Sport tires and they have imperceptible wear.

IncgntoLex

Some people swear that this is normal for AWD cars.

Rhambler

I had a perplexing inside tire wear problem on my AWD Acura.

It was 7 years into ownership when this started happening. Got it aligned at the dealership and they said everything was perfect and within specs, but my struts were leaking. I brushed that comment off and ended up getting new tires shortly after.

Starting noticing some more inside tire wear and took it back to the dealership. The master tech came and said that if anything is wrong with the suspension, shocks/struts, joints, arms, etc, it could very well cause my issue but not show up on an alignment.

So I had them put in four new struts, which cost a ton. He mentioned this car is a big hog and weighs a lot (although in hindsight, it sure is less than my new hog of a Lexus!). Sure enough, my problem went away and my ride improved a lot.

Wandl

for me, the issue was one of the shocks as well as the upper control arms...caused front two tires to wear unevenly.

bsimonds

Doublebase wins the prize! The tech at Park Place Lexus, Plano, found the control arms shot. It is frustrating that an independent alignment shop and another Lexus dealership could check the alignment, pronounce it good, and not notice the worn out control arm bushings. Incidentally, the uneven tire wear was the only indication that there was a problem - no noises and no pulling.

sdwtchlvr

iTrader: (1)

Good stuff.

tirengolf

I work on Lexus at my shop, I have noticed some of the control arm's rubber bushing's having issues with the rubber oxidizing and cracking . I have seen some simply come out. This should be a straightforward diagnosis for any tech especially if there is a consistent tire wear issue. It is what it is . Correct air pressure is so crucial on these cars. There is not a recall or TSB on this issue as far as i am aware of, I am certainly not a engineer or a automobile designer this is just my experience working on these cars for 40 years. As you could imagine I have seen it all. Lexus builds a very good automobile , we have three in my family now. I still have not got over my sticky dash issue on my wife's 07 ES and my sons 08 IS. Is anyone aware of any update's on this.

Rhambler

Yeah, the Acura I had experienced a preponderance of issues relating to rubber bushings.

Those cars had a notorious motor mount failure rate with the rubber motor mounts cracking and leaking fluid! Yeah, they were fluid-filled mounts housed in a rubber bushing. While it offered great vibration isolation, they failed early and often and were a pain to change.

Same can be said on the rubber bushings for their suspension, although the rate and prevalence of failures seemed a lot less, at least people reporting on it in a user's forum.

I guess there's a trade-off in specifying something that might be soft and offer good "riding characteristics," but the drawback being that they just don't last very long. A design decision that probably wasn't that great.

A lot of people on the Acura forum ended up replacing motor mounts with aftermarket bushings that were harder and not made of rubber, same can be said of the bushings on the suspension, although I just went back with OEM in my case.

Doublebase

I think the problem is that most techs don't work on these cars regularly, so they don't know what to look for (and I know that sounds silly). The problem is the cars suspension design - it's not typical - on a typical design you either have a short long arm design, or a McPherson strut design. On these newer/German styles, it's multiple control arms, I find it unusual to inspect...where do you jack it up? Under both control arms? Under the frame? Can you just bar the bushing areas and check for looseness? What I've found is that a visual inspection...along with what we alread know about these cars, works best. And some of these bushings aren't all that easy to see...the top ones are, but the bottom front isn't. I bought six control arms through Amazon last week...I'll be putting them in next week. I'll post a thread.

Geo60

My 2011 LS460 shows the same unusual inner tire wear as the original poster. The tires lasted 26,000 miles. I service the car exclusively at the Lexus dealership and they explain it as: They all do this. It's just the way the suspension is set up. I think if the control arms or bushings were bad they'd have mentioned it/repaired them/charged me out the wazoo. So, something's really fishy here. You can look at the rear tires and tell the tires are not sitting flat. When I replaced the tires -- at the dealership -- the Lexus tire specialist informed me the tires were rated for 45,000 miles, but if the tires didn't wear evenly, Michelin wouldn't prorate the replacement tires. So, knowing the tires are SET-UP to wear unevenly, what am I supposed to do? When pressed the dealership explains they're set-up this way because that's the way Lexus customers prefer them for handling and ride. It's definitely NOT what I want. I think it's dangerous and I suspect a design flaw.

mdpresco

Alignments are done under static conditions with no one sitting in the car. The suspension bushings carry all the steering and decelerating loads of the car when braking. If the bushings are worn the alignment changes when the car starts rolling.

The upper front and rear are easy to visually inspect for cracking and wear. The lower rear is also easy. Even with the car on a lift it is the lower front that requires a panel to be removed and it is still hard to see. After the alignment prior to getting 6 of the 8 front control arms replaced, the Lexus SA told me there was no adjustment left and that parts would have to be replaced. My bushings didn't look that bad but my tires were wearing on the inside.